Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

The visionary encounter ends with a judgment passed on the Kindred. Not every seeker
survives this judgment. Failure might also leave the seeker insane or merely wracked with
despair at failing his one chance at salvation. The legends all agree on one thing: A Kindred
experiences the Suspire only once. A seeker never gets a second chance. If the seeker passes
the test, he achieves enlightenment and liberation from the curse of undeath.
STORYTELLING THE QUEST
We deliberately avoid specifying too much about Golconda and how to achieve it. By defi nition,
Golconda pushes a character outside the rules that govern normal Kindred existence.
Nailing down a state of mystical transcendence with trait scores and test pools would cheapen
the whole idea. Still, we offer a few suggestions on incorporating a quest for Golconda into
your chronicle, assuming you want to include it at all. If you choose, the scoffers could be
right and Golconda could just be a wishful fairy tale.
Before anything else, a character needs to learn that Golconda might exist. Stories about
the blessed state are neither terribly rare nor brutally suppressed (in most cities, anyway),
but they are not exactly common knowledge. Before a character can even think of seeking
Golconda, she must hear a story or two about it.
If the character takes an interest in stories of salvation for the Damned, she can search for
more information. Doing so involves broaching the subject with other Kindred who might
not want to admit that they pay attention to such things, and it might expose the character
to Harpies’ derision. As the character hears more, she learns that attacks on her reputation
are the smallest danger brought by the search. Not everyone survives the quest. The character
also learns that the search takes a long time. As Storyteller, make it clear to players that if their
characters seek Golconda, they commit to a long, ongoing subplot, if not a whole new direction
for the chronicle. Salvation for the Damned is an epic story that one does not tell briefl y.
Early in the quest, a character has nothing but tales to guide her. She doesn’t know if Golconda
really exists or exactly what she must do to achieve the state. She must proceed on faith
and try by reason and intuition to sift truth from the cryptic hints available. As Storyteller,
you need to supply those hints in the form of rumors and riddles. Some of these hints should
contradict or just be mystical-sounding gibberish. The character might try to track a story to
its source, asking each teller where he heard it. With luck, skill and perseverance, she might
fi nd a Kindred who says he personally encountered someone he thinks was a Kindred in
Golconda, and he remembers a riddle or parable that was told. Another story might lead to
an obscure mystical tract written by someone who claimed to know the secret, or a meeting
with another seeker who can pass on his own beliefs and research. Tracking legends to their
source in this way certainly involves travel, with all the dangers it entails for Kindred.
The character soon learns the importance of remorse and atonement. The greater a vampire’s
sins, the greater the penance she must perform. The legends and rumors might suggest ways
that Kindred can make amends for their crimes, but this is an opportunity for characters
(and players) to explore the nature and limits of atonement. How do you make amends to the
dead? Are some injuries beyond repair? Should a vampire even try to atone for some crimes
or should she simply accept punishment, even unto Final Death?
Along the way, a character should also try to protect those weaker than herself and try
to make the World of Darkness a better place. Through her efforts, she atones on behalf
of all Kindred. If the Biblical metaphor is valid, Longinus’ act that confi rmed the faith of
others proved his own damnation. Surely, any Kindred who seeks release from the curse of
undeath must show that she is aware of the signifi cance of that burden. Doing so necessarily
involves maintaining (or recovering) a high Humanity, upholding every Virtue possible on
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mind’s chapter eye three: theatre: special requiem rules and systems